Child brides face health woes

By Tabibul Islam, Interpress Service, 17 May 2000

DHAKA, May 17 (IPS)—Jobeda, a domestic worker in the Bangladeshi
capital, is happy at having finally found a life partner for her
13-year-old daughter.

Taking the little money she had hoarded away for the wedding from her
meagre monthly earnings of less than 10 U.S. dollars, Jobeda travelled
to her home in the countryside some 100 km from here for the marriage.

She does not know that what she has done has made her liable to pay a
20 dollar penalty—and could even land her in prison.

But the unlettered mother could not have cared less even if she knew
the law. For the legal ban on the marriage of girls below 18 years of
age and boys less than 21 years old has rarely been enforced in the
country.

According to estimates by peoples' groups campaigning against the
practice, under-age nuptials make up at least a tenth of the nearly
two million weddings every year in the nation of more than 120 million
people. Many of these brides are just 10 years old.

Those battling the practice admit there are very strong social and
economic reasons for this in a nation with one of the highest levels
of poverty, illiteracy and second class social status for women.

Daughters are seen as ‘social burdens' by even middle class
families in traditional Bangladeshi society and unmarried grown-up
girls frowned upon. Single, grown up girls of poor families in the
cities also face the risk of sexual harassment from neighbourhood
boys.

But the critics say that early marriage severely damages the health of
the young brides and the children born to them.

Health experts say this is a main cause of widespread child
malnutrition that is a big child killer and affects the physical and
mental growth of hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi children.

According to the latest U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) State of the
World's Children report, Bangladesh has the world's highest
level of malnourished children. Half of all newborns have low birth
weight and more than half the children under five years old suffer
“moderate” or “severe” malnutrition.

Other estimates say that diseases related to malnutrition kill 700
children everyday in this country.

Generations of malnutrition have shortened the average height of the
people. According to a document prepared by United Nations development
agencies and the World Bank, Bangladesh is perhaps the only country
where this has happened.

The study titled, ‘A Fork In The Path’, notes that the
average height of 12-year old boys in the rural areas has declined by
seven percent between 1937 and 1982.

Moreover, malnourished children grow up into adults who cannot work to
full productivity. The annual loss in economically useful work due to
malnutrition in Bangladesh is estimated to be some three billion
dollars. This is as much as the annual government spending on health,
education and other social sectors.

Women's' rights activist Rashida Ameen describes child
marriage as the “cruelest form of repression” of young
girls. Young brides are usually burdened with heavy household chores,
besides being required to take personal care of their husbands.

The girls are often beaten up by in-laws and husbands angered by
slight lapses in household work. In some cases, the harassed girls are
known to end their lives, says Ameen.

Pregnancy at a young age affects the child in the womb. According to
experts, in 75 percent of cases, under-age mothers give birth to
underweight infants.

Women activists accuse parents of rights abuse in marrying off young
girls as the latter are not even consulted before the decision is
taken.

A survey by the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association in
the southern Noakhali district in 1998 found that parents rarely
consulted their under-18-year-old daughters when marrying them off.

In fact, the low-income parents usually lie about the real age of
their daughters at the time of their marriage. The lack of birth
registration in rural areas makes it difficult to verify the real age
of girls.

Legal experts fault the law. Lawyer Elena Khan of Ain-O-Salish Kendra,
a non-governmental group that offers legal aid to the poor, points to
an inner contradiction in the Child Marriage Act.

Although the law has made child marriage an offence, it has not
declared child marriages illegal, she says.

Compulsory birth registration for all children can help a great deal
in enforcing the law, she says. Khan also wants the law to be in tune
with social realities, but cautions against hasty changes as these
could touch off sharp public reaction.

Women's rights activists believe that laws alone cannot stop child
marriages, and have emphasised the need for educating people about the
dangers of child marriage.

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